Buffet Pricing

I had hoped to be writing about a Chinese buffet in Piscataway, New Jersey, but in looking for it off the exit at I287, we missed finding it by about a half a mile. Never got to eat there - but I was right, saw it on the way back to the Interstate - there was one there. I should be back in the area in a few weeks - and now I know where it is - if I can find it again.

So, instead, I am writing about buffet pricing. How do buffets make a profit offering "all that you CAN (care) to eat"? I will start by stating that what you are about to read is opinion and not based upon interview, questionnaire, or research. But that would not be any fun, now, would it?

One would think that a buffet should go out of business quickly by offering everything for less than $12 (or less) (or more). Some do. Many don't and make a good profit in the process. How do they do it? It is my theory that they count on people not eating as much as they would if the restaurant put the food out on the plate and sent it to the table. What goes to the table at a sit down restaurant cannot come back to the kitchen. BUT in a buffet - it all comes back to the kitchen. It may be reused in some other way - left over roast beef may becomes beef stew. It may get wrapped, refrigerated (I hope), reheated, and put out for lunch the next day. It is also put out based upon the crowd at the time (if it is put out again, at all - as we have written about). For the average person, this theory holds true from my observation. Many people do not take more than they would eat (or get) at a "regular" restaurant. Many eat less. (I will talk about the exceptions later.) What people may do at a buffet is take a variety of foods but when this is all put together in quantity, it is not much more than (if more) than they would have been served to them by a waiter.

Here are some things that I noticed many times when I dined at "family style" restaurants in Pennsylvania (where you are supposed to be eating like the "Pennsylvania Dutch" farmers who have worked in the field the whole day). In these restaurants a waitress brings platters of food to the table and they are passed around by diners in groups of fifteen or more (never just you and yours at a table - but always families and people seated together in large groups). Everyone takes what they want and as much as they want. When the platter is empty, the waitress will ask if she should bring more. Now - here is the psychology. You have filled your plate. You need to ask for the dish to be passed back to you - by strangers - for you to take more. Hmm - a little social pressure now. Some are bold and ask. Others don't - especially when the comments are made that there will be six kinds of dessert coming.

Another thing that these "family-style" restaurants always do is that the first platters to come to the table are bread and some relishes. They are sure to tell you that this is home-baked bread. (Whose home?) But - "WOW!", people are heard to say, "Home baked bread!" That dish is empty before it goes halfway around the table - and the waitress (no comments - they are always waitresses in these restaurants - it's like mother is giving you dinner) will always bring more bread right away - and again the plate goes around. Everyone (except those "knowing" few of us) have filled up on the bread (one of the cheapest things that they can serve) before any of the chicken, ham, beef, sausages, vegetables, potatoes, etc. ever come to the table. And when the potatoes come out - it is the same story - "These are home made mashed potatoes - not from a box. You have to try them!" And those potatoes go around three times. Starch is filling. When you eat the bread and then the potatoes, you are not going to fill your plate with meat a second time. Especially, when you think that SIX deserts are coming (more starch and certainly less costly than meat). Do these restaurants lose money on a meal? Rarely. I am sure that they are well into their profit margin. Several of these restaurants have been around in Lancaster County, PA for more than forty years.

Chinese buffets make out well too over a served Chinese meal. What is often put out in the trays in a Chinese buffet is about what is put out in two or (maybe) three individual table serving platters. This is there for everyone in the restaurant. Count the patrons and count what is out and it is not equal to what would be out if each person ordered and a platter was brought to them. They also are counting on the attraction of diners to rice and noodles, along with popular dishes that have much less meat than vegetables (which is true of most Chinese restaurants - buffets or not). I was in one last week where a guy had to have the crispy snack noodles and was frantic to find them. (With all that was there - why eat the snack noodles?) Again, you fill up on the starch.

What the diner can do well on at an Asian buffet is the Sushi. Sushi costs a lot at non-buffet restaurants (and at Sushi-only buffets). At the Chinese buffet, Asian buffet, or "International" buffet the Sushi is put out along with all of the other variety of dishes - and the price is (seemingly) not effected by the comparative cost of the Sushi. If you make an entire meal out of Sushi you are more than getting your money's worth. An equivalent meal in a regular restaurant would cost much, much more.

What is put out at other than Chinese buffets is limited in quantity as well. This particularly is true of the carvings. When you go up for steak at a buffet, do you get a whole steak? Rarely. You get a piece of steak. You get one or two thin slices (if the slicer knows what he or she is doing) of turkey, roast beef, etc. Yes, you can go back for more. But as I have written about in the past, many people fill their plate (everything on top of everything else) because they do not want to get up again. In these instances the restaurant is making out. It is also the case at many buffet restaurants is that prices are higher on nights when there are "special" features - seafood nights especially.

Now, there are the exceptions. There are some incredibly large people who frequent buffets because, frankly, they could not get enough to keep themselves satisfied in any other restaurant. (No digs - but it is true - just look around the room at most buffet chains. (Not often the case at Chinese buffets - not sure why not.) These people take much more for their $11.49 than others. (My wife had a cousin, who it was joked about that if he went into an all you can eat restaurant, the owner would faint. - JUST A JOKE - NEVER REALLY HAPPENED!) Conceivably, if all the patrons at a buffet ate as these people do, the restaurant would not be able to get by. It does not seem to be a problem though. (Though it may be a myth, but I have heard stories of buffets telling people - "no more". I do not think that this is true because it would result in a great law suit.) We did have one of our readers comment once that he was told that he could not leave the rice over in his plate after eating the fish of the sushi - and that if he took the sushi he had to eat the rice with the fish. Again - starch fills.

Another thing about buffet dining that leads to profit is turn over of tables. In a regular restaurant the meal is paced by the kitchen and the wait staff. In a buffet, the food is there - you start eating just as soon as you have a table. The meal is usually faster (though it does not have to be, as referenced in our "Rules") at a buffet. The tables turn over more rapidly and the room is usually filled on Friday and Saturday nights - almost the whole night from the moment dinner time starts until closing. Apply this to what I have written above, and the buffets are making a profit.

So there it is. Please remember, "All that you can eat is not a challenge!" Again, these are my theories. Buffet owners are invited to comment (as is everyone else).

Has Buffet Dining Become Too Informal?

When I was growing up in the 1950's and 60's ("Oh, now we know he is old!"), dining out at a restaurant was something special. It did not matter if it was the corner family restaurant or some place fancy - it was still special. There were certain manners that were to be exhibited. There was a certain behavior that was expected. In the restaurant you spoke quietly. You were to keep your attention to the people at your own table. This was wear the "inside voice" that your Kindergarten teacher taught you was to be used.

For the most part in most restaurants this all seems to still exist - with the exception of buffet restaurants. Now, I need to state right off from the beginning here that what I am observing in buffets may (perhaps) just be observed in New York buffets. I say this because much of what I will describe as "too informal" I do not see in buffet restaurants outside of New York - and I have been to many. What the conclusion may be - before I even start - is that people in New York are too informal in buffet restaurants - and it is New York that is the common factor in the equation of the various types of people dining in the buffet restaurants. But that said, I shall continue.

How come in buffets people look upon dining as a community event? They talk between tables. Entire long, loud, and detailed conversations take place in a section of the dining room among people who are unrelated. This does not happen in other restaurants (even in New York) with the exception of a few comments or pleasantries exchanged. In buffets it is common.

Everyone laughing at a table is the sign of a good time out - wonderful! But, does that laughing need to be so loud and constant that everyone in the restaurant's attention is drawn to it. I am not looking to dine quietly, but it is often impossible to carry on a personal conversation with the people at my own table over the noise coming from a table at the other side of the room.

I wonder if it is the ability to get up and walk around to go to the buffet tables that leads to the informality. If one can leave the table and move about, then perhaps one forgets that this is a restaurant - and therefore, all the manners of being in a restaurant do not apply. I have not seen these things in fast food restaurants - and if there is any place informal, it is McDonald's and Burger King.

Two weeks ago I spoke in the update to the Rules of the Buffet that someone brought a hamster into a buffet and then set the box with the hamster down onto their table, opening the box to play with the hamster -and then moving around the room with the hamster to show it off. Could this have happened in any other type of restaurant - without this person and the animal being tossed out? I am going to hope not. It happened at a buffet.

I will go back again to my beginning speculation - about this all being a New York phenomenon. There are not many buffet restaurants in New York. There is only the Old Country Buffet chain and those are few and far between. There are Chinese buffets scattered about. Perhaps the buffet experience is too unusual for average, every day New Yorkers - and, therefore, they do not know that what applies in all other restaurants applies at the buffet as well. They come in and see it as a large eating playground - and not just the kids. They think that it is like being at home - you get up and serve yourself - so what you might do at home is ok to do in the buffet restaurant - speak and laugh as loud as you want, yell across the room, put your hands into the serving dish. No , you are not at home.

There do seem to be some people who understand that they are dining out - and they present themselves with proper and polite manners and decorum. They have paid good and hard earned money for a night out and expect restaurant behavior from those around them. And it for this minority that I speak out here.

I shall not go on, as anymore would be beating the dead horse to further death. Perhaps the informality is not a New York thing, and those of you in other States have seen this too. Maybe the many buffets that I have been to outside of New York have just been the exceptions. Buffets do get a bad reputation and are often referred to jokingly in television comedies. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why. Use the comments here to speak out and let us know what your experience and observations have been.

Three from the Sea at OCB

I have tried the new special feature at Old Country Buffet and I do have to admit that it is better than Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp. Three from the Sea is the new feature served on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. As the name implies this is a seafood combination that includes fish, crab, and shrimp (naturally).

The fish is called Butter Crunch Alaskan Pollack. It is not bad. It is the best of the three and far surpasses the other fish dishes that Old Country Buffet has served to date. This is thin strips of pollack fillets, a light, white fish, that is coated in a very light crusting. It is broiled (or baked) in what is presumed to be butter from the name - but the butter (or whatever) was not overwhelming. It had a nice mild taste and I went back for more.

The crab is crab cakes or what should be called here "mock crab pancakes" are thin patties of fake crab meat (it did not have the texture, the color, or the taste of real crab, but more resembled "sea legs" which is what it must be). There is a lot of breading and a few pieces of green pepper chopped in. All of this is broiled and comes out as flat disks about thee inches in diameter. The taste was ok, but these were not crab cakes as anyone would expect. The Maryland shore has nothing to worry about here.

The shrimp was Orange Shrimp. It is exactly the same as OCB's Orange Chicken but made with shrimp. This is breaded shrimp that is fried and then mixed into an orange glaze with a sprinkling of sesame seeds. These were ok at first, but after a few became too sweet and I wound up peeling away the coating to get to the shrimp inside. I have had the Orange Chicken and liked it. This was sweeter. Perhaps the shrimp is not enough to carry the orange sauce.

While the name of the feature says "Three" from the sea, there was also fried clam strips. The ones that were out when I took them were burnt - and as a result were terrible. I could not finish the few that I took to taste. Later in the evening more were brought out and these did not look burnt. They may have been better tasting - but the first batch put me off them and I did not take more - even to try.

While this is feature is being served the regular items have not seemed to be discarded. On this Thursday night they were still carving beef brisket and ham and beef ribs were served. Despite the lack of signs about steak, there was still steak being served. Of course, there was regular fried shrimp as well. (Somebody at OCB corporate must love shrimp!)

So all in all, Three from the Sea, is ok. It is worth a try, if for nothing but the pollack.

More New Rules

I find that I must add a few more new rules to the list of Rules of the Buffet. Sadly, I would never have believed that I would have to add something so obvious and disgusting as this first new rule.

RULE 23. Never bring an animal into the buffet.

Now, I am not talking about a service dog. I had the misfortune to experience someone bringing their new PET HAMSTER into the buffet. Here is how it went. A woman was sitting at a table alone. She was joined by her two daughters, one of whom was carrying a Petco box with holes in it. She put the box DOWN ON THE TABLE and shortly later opened the box to play with the hamster inside. They remained at the table with the animal for over an hour. Then she got up with the box to walk through the dining room and placed it on several more tables to show what was inside. She showed it to an employee who screamed, but the employee did nothing and said nothing to her. An animal in a restaurant (especially a rodent) is a health code violation. I have seen how these restaurants clean their tables and there was nothing that they were going to wash those tables down with that was going to disinfect whatever that animal could be carrying.

A comment was made from a table behind me when they noticed the box, but that they thought that the box was, at least, sealed. I informed them that it wasn't. Many vocal comments were made then by them loud enough for the people with the animal to hear, but these were ignored. With no manager to be found, it crossed my mind to make a call to the Board of Health. Just for the record, this was at an OCB.

I never thought that I would see an animal brought into a restaurant. A buffet restaurant with all of the food out and exposed with this animal being carried around the room is the ultimate.

RULE 24. Never put your hands into a serving tray.

Rule 25. Tell your children not to put their hands into a serving tray - and make sure that they do not!

Believe it or not, in a recent poll of buffet owners they were asked what they most would like and they all answered that they wanted parents to teach their children not put their hands into the serving trays - ignoring the serving spoons and just reaching on in.

This is true of some adults as well.

They would also appreciate it if parents had their children wash their hands before coming up to the serving tables.

RULE 26. Do not carry on a conversation throughout dinner with the people at the tables around you.

People seem to think that dining at a buffet is a community experience. Some think nothing of turning to the people at the next table or tables and starting a conversation that becomes loud enough for the room to hear and goes on for the entire meal. Friendly is one thing - a multi-table discussion?

So for now, four more rules added to the growing list. At some point in the future I am going to write an article about the informality of buffet restaurants - and how that is not such a good thing. Out of that informality some of these rules have sprung!

Someone from Corporate Must be Paying Attention

A short while ago I wrote about what I consider to be the worst Old Country Buffet. The location is Levittown, New York. Well, someone from OCB must be reading and paying attention as recently there has been a dramatic change in the Levittown OCB, and it is a change for the better.

About three weeks ago we went in and saw a gentleman walking around the restaurant very attentively and dressed in a shirt that said "Buffets Inc.". Now all of the store manager shirts may say this but this was the first one shirt like this that I noticed. I immediately said to my wife that something is up. Looking around things looked better. His arrival coincided with the change in the restaurant - and I should add an increase in price of a dollar per meal. This past week we were there again and the same gentleman in the same shirt now had an ID tag on and it said "Food Bar Manager". Well, this OCB never had one of those before.

There were several points that I made in the article that have been addressed. Food is now refilled regularly and even at 9:00 pm on a Sunday night new carvings were coming out and food trays were kept full. And things were not just coming out for the employees to eat while the diners looked at empty trays for an hour before. The chicken noodle soup now has noodles in it. It had been chicken soup with carrots and celery and nothing else before (I guess a generic chicken soup). The cleanliness has improved also (not great, but better). They also seem to be able to anticipate the crowds now. As I had noted previously, nights that the restaurant should expect a larger than normal number of diners - for example, the night before a school holiday - they would run out of everything early and not replace food items. One of the nights that we just went was the night before a school holiday, and everything was out that should be.

This is good. I would like to think that someone read my article and made some noise at corporate headquarters -maybe not, but remarkably the problems that I noted are starting to be addressed and corrected. Hopefully, this will continue. Hopefully, the "Food Bar Manager" will remain and keep this restaurant on track.

I do wonder if the dollar increase is chain wide. Overhearing regular customers, they are not happy at paying $11.49 for dinner now. Many people seem to eat here regularly; some every night. They apparently budgeted these meals out for themselves and now the increase is pinching some. The better conditions should not warrant an increase in price. Though I am not sure there is any relation between the two. There is nothing on the website about price. It will be interesting to see if they lose the frequent business of the regulars.

Another observation, just from the website (as I do not recall seeing a change on the door), is that the hours of this restaurant used to be until 9:00 pm Sunday to Thursday and until 9:30 pm on Friday and Saturday. Now the hours are until 8:30 pm Sunday to Thursday and until 9:00 on Friday and Saturday. Hmm... Increased price and shorter hours. For the average family who eats between 5 and 6, it makes no difference. But for those of us night owls who eat after 7:30, sometimes 8:00 depending on how the day goes, this is not so good.

They have just started the "Three from the Sea" special feature. Let's hope this one is better than "Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp". This offers several seafoods and, of course, shrimp. I have not tried it yet. I will let you know when I do. This is offered Thursday, Friday, and Saturday only.

There was also a sign with featured carvings every night - and these seem to have changed from what they had been. Some looked for the better. There was no indication that there still is steak every night except Sundays. There was one sign still remaining in a window that mentioned steak, but no where on the website does it now mention steak. Not much of a loss considering the steak that they serve (served? - Maybe, at Corporate, it went "Robert doesn't like the steak. Let's get rid of it! - Maybe not?)

But I should not be negative in an article about the improvements that have been made - at least in Old Country Buffet, Levittown, New York. Corporate, if you are reading this, "thank you!" Also Corporate, let us know that you are out there and post a comment - let us know what you are thinking. That goes for everyone else! And if you have seen improvements at your OCB (or things that have gotten worse) let us know.

A Little Bit of Fame

Just by chance and nothing much more important to do, I was following up on sites with links to this site. I saw one that said CBS News. I clicked and there before me appeared the CBS News Website and an article in the Blogophile section from March 1, 2006. (I just found this - better late than never.) The article is about Food Blogs and reading through, what do I find? Nothing less than this humble website - and not just a one line mention, but a paragraph. According to the author, we are one of the "fun" sites! I am impressed!

With the ten billion blogs in the Internet Universe, I am often amazed that anyone ever finds this one. I know that we have readers because my counter often impresses me week after week. I also get a good number of comments and responses to articles. To find out that a national news organization found the site - and then included it in a story - WOW!

So I shall reveille in my brief moment of glory. If you would like to see the story, here is the link.

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/28/blogophile/main1352629.shtml

Super Grand Buffet - Baldwin, New York

The Super Grand Buffet is located at 1874-1878 Grand Avenue in Baldwin, New York on Long Island. This Chinese buffet has been in business for a number of years. This is a large restaurant filling the space of four store fronts in a busy commercial town area. Surprisingly, for such a large restaurant there is not a large amount of seating. The restaurant has a large buffet area including four large, double-sided buffet tables and an L-shaped counter spread along two walls. There is a large, private party room seating over 150 that takes up a considerable amount of the restaurant's space. Seating consists of booths and tables in the front of the restaurant. Unlike many buffet restaurants, there is a liquor bar that takes up part of the L-shaped counter on the side wall in the buffet serving area.

We went to the restaurant on a Saturday night and the restaurant was crowded. The price of dinner on the weekends and holidays is $11.49 with children at $6.99. A good price in this region. Weekdays the price is $10.49 with children at $5.99. Children are 10 and under. There are lunch prices until 3:30 except on Sundays. Lunch is $5.99 (children $3.99) Monday through Friday and $7.59 (children $4.99) on Saturdays and holidays. Children under 2 are free. There are unlimited soft drinks for an additional $1.00 per person. Hours are 11 to 10:00 pm Monday to Thursday, 11 to 11 on Friday and Saturday, and 12 to 10 pm on Sunday. They list something called "Break Hour" from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm Monday to Friday. I am not sure what this means, so avoid the restaurant during that hour on weekdays.

Let me start out by saying that this Chinese buffet is just average. That is not a bad thing, but there was nothing really outstanding or special here, except perhaps the price. The food is average. Not bad, not great. Nothing wrong with it, but I can't find anything to say was so good you have to run over there to try it. There was plenty to find to eat. They claim that there are over 200 dishes offered every day. With that said, please keep reading, and I will tell you what they had.

On one of the large, double-sided buffet tables there were cold offerings. There was a salad bar area with basic greens, dressing, and toppings. There were cold, peel and eat shrimp. Now, I must say that these shrimp were large for a Chinese buffet and they were properly kept on ice. There were also cold muscles. This buffet table also had a variety of prepared salads. To the side of this table was part of the L-shaped counter that was a Sushi bar. There actually was a Sushi chef, but he was making one or two pieces at a time and placing them out. Perhaps the crowd that frequents this restaurant is not a Sushi-eating crowd. There was salmon and tuna, and later some spiced salmon was put out. There were vegetable rolls and California rolls. It was there, but it was hard not to take the three pieces of salmon that were there and leave any out for anyone else. With the Sushi chef there most of the evening, I guess, he keeps putting a few more pieces out. It is certainly fresher this way - but unusual.

There were four soups. They had the usual wonton, egg drop, and hot and sour soup. They also had chicken soup with large bow-tie noodles. I tried the hot and sour soup. It was on the edge of being too spicy hot, but not so much that it was not comfortable to eat. It was thinner than most hot and sour soups.

The two buffet tables in the middle had hot entrees, appetizers, and vegetables. There were non-Chinese dishes out including a carve it yourself roast beef (they call it Prime Rib - it wasn't), salmon, and beef ribs that were not very appetizing looking steamed and loose. There was a mix of seafood and meat dishes. There was a Bangkok Chicken that was stir fried chicken with green peppers. There was shrimp in garlic. There was pepper steak and there were the usual fried rice and lo mein. There was a seafood chow mei fun (thin, stringy noodles with egg, vegetables, and shreds of seafood (mostly sealegs). Appetizers included only one type of dumpling (pan fried dumplings), egg rolls that were just fair (but typical of Chinese buffet egg rolls), fried shrimp in several forms. There were crab legs on Saturday night (you may not find these other than on weekends). The crab legs were individual legs and not clusters. There were spare ribs coated in sweet red sugar sauce. The take out menu has a very nice assortment of dishes - too bad more of these were not offered on the buffet, as it would have boosted my rating from average to very good. But alas...

The last buffet table was filled with Little Debbie-type squares of cakes and pastries. There was also dried ginger in sugar and what looked like Rice Krispy squares but were made with Chinese noodles. Next to that table was a freezer chest with six or more commercial tubs of hard ice cream. This is actually a step above the usual buffet soft serve.

There was a "Mongolian Grill" area on the leg of the L-shaped counter, but no one seemed to be 1) going up to this and 2) working behind it (though the Sushi chef was adjacent). It also was not well lit. The serving trays were full of meats and vegetables (all covered in plastic wrap) and there were two regular Chinese woks behind the counter - no traditional grill. Like me, a few people walked over to it and looked, but then walked away wondering perhaps, as I did, as to whether it was open or not. I was tempted to test it out and start to fill a dish to have it cooked, but when I looked at the meat it was not frozen (as this meat usually is and should be) and looked too red to chance. Perhaps Mongolian Grills have lost popularity, but if it is there, why not make it a feature and openly available, rather than have it look closed or not maintained.

Service was good. There were plenty of napkins on the table. The servers kept coming over to clear away dishes, ask if all is fine, and ask if the soda should be refilled. The restaurant was clean. There were no knives - so I am not sure how you would eat the roast beef. A knife may have been brought to you if you asked. Items on the buffet were labeled.

There was an obnoxious couple next to us - that is NO reflection on the restaurant. He asked for regular hot tea and green tea. This totally confused the serving girl. She told him that there was only green tea. She brought it and it turned out to be regular Chinese tea. He could not stop talking about this to his wife (girlfriend?, probably wife). Then they each filled their plates and also filled serving dishes for the two of them and covered their table in them. Like most "grabbers" there were full plates still on the table when they went for dessert.

So price makes this restaurant. It is a good value, but has just average food. I would not say do not eat here. I would say not to go out of your way to eat here. If I am in that area I might go back. There is no website for this restaurant. The telephone number is 516-868-2888 or 516-868-1582. They do regular take out and also take out buffet in addition to the sit down buffet.

OCB Buys Ryans and Other Snippets

This got past us when it happened this past July but I have just learned (as printed in the St. Paul Business Journal) that Buffets, Inc., the company that operates Old Country Buffet, bought out Ryans Restaurants. The Ryans chain was seeing financial difficulties and Buffets, Inc. bought the chain through the New York-based financial group that owns Buffets, Inc. The official word is that the two chains will be operated independently. Let's hope so. Let's also hope that there are no OCB influences that make their way into Ryans. Ryans is the superior chain (despite the financial problems they were apparently having).

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Old Country Buffet is about to embark on another of their special featured menus. This time it is focused around fish. Of course, they could not resist in bringing back some of those awful "Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp" favorites. I am assuming this will be replacing the currently featured "Steakhouse Steak", which is as close to a steakhouse steak as a McDonald's hamburger is. Actually, that is not being fair to a McDonald's hamburger - which is better than an OCB steak. The little sign on the table only said starting soon and did not say when. As was done with "Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp" and "Steak, Steak, Steak", I am assuming that "Fish, Fish, Fish" will only be offered on certain nights. (Don't know what nights, yet.)

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In August 2006 I wrote about a restaurant in North Babylon, NY called China Buffet City. I was looking for something different tonight so we took the drive back there. As this is a Friday night we got to see what the Friday/weekend dinner offerings were. My review of August still stands with a few exceptions. We got there at about 7:00 pm and the place was crowded. (A good sign, as the restaurant was near empty on that Tuesday night in August.) We did not have to wait. The restaurant is large. The price is still the same - $13.99 for weekends - which is now equal with most of the other Chinese buffets in this area. The weekday price is still higher at $12.99.

There were weekend additions to the menu. They had crab leg clusters and there were two types of steak. One of the steaks was on the grill bar and was cut pieces of steak. The other steak was on the buffet table and this was called Mongolian Steak. It was broiled, thick slices of beef round with a lot of seasoning on the outside of each piece, including way too much salt. There was a brownish-yellow sauce on the side that I did not try. Other than this nothing else seemed different.

Some of the minor problems still persist. There were more signs identifying dishes, but several of the signs were mis-placed. The Sushi chef was there when we first came in, but half way through the meal he packed up and left, leaving what he had made for the taking, but when that was gone the Sushi was done for the night - and the restaurant was still opened for dinner for almost three more hours. Some of the fried appetizers are a bit over greasy. They are good, but they drip oil (not so good).

While we were there two men were talking about the restaurant and comparing it to East - and that this is not as good. That is true, but it is half the price of East on the weekend. I still recommend China City Buffet. I have not been so happy with the never changing (except for the worst) Grand China Buffet in Farmingdale and this was a pleasant diversion. For the same price on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, the China Buffet City is far better.

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Did anyone get a buffet gift certificate for the holidays?

Everyone have a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR! See ya in 2007!

Golden Buffet, Centereach, New York

Sometimes the story of how we found a buffet is better than the restaurant itself, but in this case both are good. So here is what happened. We wanted to see a certain movie that has been playing around for a few weeks but has now left the local theaters. A search through the newspaper found the movie playing at a multiplex half way through Suffolk County toward the east end of Long Island (you know, the Hamptons, where the actors go to hide - not quite that far, though). It was a trip, but not so far from there is a shopping center and since we have not purchased one Christmas present yet, we decided to head out east. As we were finding the movie theater with the map software, I did a search for restaurants in the area. There were a few diners so we figured we had dinner covered. After leaving the mall and trying a nearby Wal-Mart to find nothing worth buying (not because it was Wal-mart as we got nothing at the mall either), we saw in the shopping center that the Wal-mart is in a Chinese buffet restaurant called Golden Buffet. It was about two and a half hours before the movie and we were still not sure where we were going to eat. We also were not exactly sure where the movie theater was, so we figured we better eat there and then and not have to go searching for both a restaurant and a movie theater. It was Saturday night, so I was not certain just how expensive this buffet could be. Sometimes weekend prices at Chinese buffets get a little out of reason. No matter, we went in.

The restaurant, as stated, is called Golden Buffet and it is located at 1973 Middle Country Road (which happens to be Route 25). It is located in a strip shopping center that has a section that is a small inside mall. Most of the stores inside have been closed, but despite the large window, (locked0 door, and sign for this restaurant facing the parking lot, the entrance is inside the mall. You enter by the mall door to the right of the restaurant's window and the door to the restaurant is just inside to the left, as you follow the restaurants window from outside and around to inside the mall. The restaurant is large with a big dining area with both tables and booths and a large buffet serving area in the rear. There also seemed to be a private party room in the back. There are six large, double-sided buffet tables and one buffet counter along a wall. The decor is modern Oriental and very nice. The tables have the name of the restaurant embedded into them.

The prices are about the going rate - weekdays dinner is $12.95 per adult with children under five feet (an interesting way of deciding - unless a very short adult shows up) are $7.99. Weekend dinner is $13.95 and the same $7.99 for children. There are lunch prices of $6.95 during the week and $7.95 on weekends. The kids lunch price is always $4.99. Unlimited soda is $1.00 per person. The restaurant always opens at 11 am and closes at 10 pm on weekdays and Sunday. It stays open until 11 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Seating is up to an hour before closing times. There is also take-out buffet by the pound and a regular take-out menu.

They claim that there are over 180 items on the buffet. They also claim that the food is American, Chinese, Italian, and Japanese. With no detraction from the claim, I guess so. Italian was a stretch, but if you consider pizza and grilled sausage to be Italian - then it had Italian. It has so much of a variety that anyone should be happy - even someone who does not like Chinese food.

Let's start with the appetizers, salads, and soup. There were four soups including a special beef soup. The salad buffet server had a variety of Oriental and American prepared salads - some with fish and crab. There were mixed greens and a large variety of vegetable toppings and dressings. On this server there were also large, cold peel and eat cocktail shrimp, raw clams, and raw oysters - oysters are s0mething you do not usually see from a restaurant in this price range. There was also cold rock crab - half large crabs. This all filled one double-sided buffet table. On the side of the room was a serving counter table that included a sushi bar and a large variety of sushi and rolls. The sushi was very good. There was both salmon and tuna on beds of rice, California Rolls, Spicy Salmon Rolls, and vegetable rolls. Sushi was not refilled as often as it should have been - but it was refilled while we were there. (No, I did not become a Sushi Grabber - I made sure NOT to take it all. ) On this counter there were other considerable items that we will come back to later. On a mix of other servers there were a variety of other appetizer type dishes. There were all the usual Chinese appetizers, such as egg rolls, spare ribs, etc. There were baked clams. There were three types of dumplings. And yes, there were crab legs. They were good sized clusters.

The entrees were many and varied. Back on the counter server were two hot carvings. There was a large prime rib and there was a leg of lamb. Both hot and moist under heat lamps with the carving knives and forks out for you to slice your own. Along the buffet tables were a pork roast to be sliced and long rolls of grilled Italian sausage. The pork roast was moist and nicely seasoned. There was salmon and there was an Asian steamed fish. There were many Chinese dishes including chicken with mushrooms. a special steak, Hong Kong Beef (beef chunks in a brown sauce), the usual chicken and broccoli, pepper steak, General Tso's Chicken, roast duck (labeled roast chicken, but it was definately duck, mixed seafood (labeled Shrimp with Lobster Sauce- but it wasn't, however, the shrimp were large and good flavored. They were mixed in with mock crab and squid.), crab meat in cheese, and many other dishes.

Side dishes were as many and as varied as the entrees. There was fried rice and lo mein. There were also several types of potatoes including french fries, chunked potatoes, and a potato stuffed with cheese. There were Chinese stir fry string beans, corn on the cob, and many others.

There was a large double-sided dessert table with the usual "Little Debbie" type cakes. There were a number of canned fruits. There were two jellos and two puddings. There was a variety of fresh fruit and melons. We heard a mother telling her children that they were going to have ice cream, but I looked around and saw no soft serve machine. So if it was there, it was not obvious.

So how was the food? - very, very good. There were many things that struck me as better than the usual buffet. One of them was the egg rolls. I like a good egg roll. Usually egg rolls at Chinese buffets are more wrapper than filling. The ones here were a decent size and full of vegetables and pork. They were very good. Everything that I tried was good. Nothing was such that I would say skip it (well... OK, the spare ribs looked dry and were covered in that sweet red sauce that only seems to show up on spare ribs in Chinese buffet restaurants).

Service was equally good. There were several young Chinese women who traveled around the tables making sure that dishes were picked up promptly and soda was refilled. There are knives at the buffet server. A stack of extra napkins were put down on the table. There were little dishes for sauces on the salad buffet table. Everything was well tended. Food was kept moist and refilled. There is a minor problem with labeling on the buffet, but the majority was correct. The check was brought before we were finished, but that does not really mean anything. (Some might take it as a hint - if it is, too bad.) My wife likes to add some fruit to her last plate, before dessert - and often after that at many Chinese buffets, the check is brought to the table. I think that for some reason that fruit is a signal that we are having dessert - even when we are not and I still have a plate full of entrees. No one says anything, and we go right on eating.

My only regret is that Golden Buffet is over 45 minutes away from me, and with the price of gas it cannot be a regular choice. It is far better than where I usally go. So if you are ever in mid-Suffolk County on Long Island, go over to Golden Buffet in Centereach. It is worth the stop. There is no web site, but the phone number is 631-588-5188. (The movie was good as well.)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to ALL!

The Lobster Grabbers Converted

We have not been to the China Grand Buffet in Farmingdale, New York for over a month or more. The price went up a while ago - just fifty cents per person, but at the same time the lobster was taken off the buffet. Had the price gone down fifty cents when this happened it would have been no real loss, as this restaurant claimed that it refilled the lobster tray every forty five minutes, but in reality, we could be there for 90 minutes having dinner and never see lobster. And, of course, asking for it did no good as you would be told "45 minutes". We have been on a bit of a budget lately so we have not been there.

Tonight we went back. Low and behold, there were the Lobster Grabbers. (For those of you new to this site, check back in past articles for the Lobster Grabbers) What would they do now? There is no lobster any more for them to grab. Would it be the crab legs? No, it was the sushi! The Lobster Grabbers have now converted to become the Sushi Grabbers. The guy literally filled a dish with every piece of sushi that was in the tray. And did the restaurant refill it the entire time that we were in the restaurant eating? Of course, not. My suspicion is that they did not refill the tray because they knew that as soon as they did, this guy would bounce up and grab every piece again. Not so good for the rest of us.

The now, Sushi Grabbers like to fill entire plates as serving dishes. There are only two of them but they fill several plates and put it out in front of themselves, in addition to their own plates full of food. As I have pointed out before, this is incredibly rude, wasteful, and inconsiderate of every other diner in the restaurant. They, apparently, have no concern or thought for anyone but themselves. (I often feel this is a New York phenomenon - but perhaps you in the rest of the country will tell me that it happens every where. I generally find people outside of NY nicer.)

The Sushi Grabbers are not so unusual, unfortunately. I have seen this other times at other restaurants. People decide that they need to fill plates of one item and bring it to the table. Often the plates are almost as full when they decide to go and fill plates with dessert as when they started the meal. The plates of food are left and thrown out as the table is cleaned. For everyone else, all of the chicken is gone; all of the french fries are gone; etc. Terribly rude! It also send sends a message to the restaurant - too much is being taken too quickly and prices are need to go up.

One day I am going to make up a card to hand out to people like this at buffets. It will have the address of this site and say, "Come read the RULES". I would just say, "Take a look. You might find this interesting." And I would smile - no sense in getting punched in the nose for a piece of sushi or chicken. If anyone else would like to make such a card and use it, be my guest. I am sure that you have all seen and encountered your share of Lobster/Sushi/Chicken/Shrimp Grabbers. Let us know what you have seen by posting a comment.

Buffet Employee of the Year

I had never thought of a buffet employee of the year until the other night when we were dining at the Ryan's in Fredericksburg, Virginia. (Yes, we were on the road again.) We got into the restaurant late on Monday night - late, because this particular Ryan's changed it's hours. They close now at 8:30 on weeknights (since the end of November according to the sign on the door). We arrived at 7:30pm as we were driving north.

We got to the cashier and there was no one there. It took a short while to be noticed and then a young lady came over to the cash register. We were seated and I looked around the restaurant to see that there were not many there - which is probably why they have shortened their hours. A trip to the soup area was an indication that I should not put much hope in the evening's dining experience. They have really good chicken noodle soup with thick noodles. The soup was just about at the bottom of the server - and in the last hour was not likely to be refilled. There was enough soup for my wife and I to each have a quarter bowl. Looking around, most serving trays seemed full enough, so perhaps there was no need for concern.

I finished my soup and headed to the grill for what I still consider to be the best chain buffet steak. I asked the young gentleman at the grill for a steak medium rare. He looked at me and and said that all he had was well done, but he had a steak on the grill that would be ready in ten minutes. Great. I told him that I would be back. I filled my plate with some of the other good entrees on the buffet and returned to our table.

More customers were coming in - and by now it was near 8:00pm. The restaurant was far from full but now had a decent number of diners for a Monday night. I noticed three waiting by the grill. I finished my plate and headed back to the grill - the ten minutes were just about up. As I approached the grill, the same young man had just served a man in front of me a piece of steak. I got up to the grill and asked for a steak medium rare. He looked at me and then with recognition told me that he had just given that steak away. He apologized, but made no offer to make another one. I said, ok - what did he have? He told me that all he had was very well done. I took it.

I returned to my table a bit peeved. I was not going to make an issue because I realized that we arrived an hour before closing and we were probably lucky to be eating there at all. I told my wife what had happened. I poured steak sauce on the plate in an attempt to soften the meat and started eating the very well done steak. I thought about the comments that have been posted on this site about not going to buffets late when they are about to close.

Now, what happened next was remarkable for a buffet restaurant employee. The young man from the grill walked over to our table carrying a plate. He stopped and asked me if I still wanted a steak medium rare. He held out the plate with the steak on it. Wow! He told me that he felt badly that I had not gotten the steak that I had asked for earlier and he made this one just for me. I smiled and told him that I absolutely wanted it. He handed me the plate went back to the grill with both of us smiling. This unidentified young man is my buffet employee of the year. Any place else, anyone else would have just cleaned off the grill for the night and give no thought to a disappointed customer. Not only did this young man go out of his way to make me a happy patron of the restaurant, but a short while later he walked back to the table and asked if it was ok. I said yes, and he gave a big thumbs up. He returned to the grill area and started to clean and close down the grill for the night.

Perhaps you have encountered a buffet employee who has gone way beyond what was necessary to make a customer happy. If you have let us know!

Shields Tavern, Colonial Williamsburg, VA

I am in Virginia again and I am going to tell you about an all you can eat experience that I also wrote about this past September. I am purposely not looking back at that article so that I may give this restaurant a fresh review for the second time around. If I repeat myself...- it is worth reading it again. We dined at Shields Tavern tonight and had their special groaning board feast dinner. This is one of the best kept secrets in Colonial Williamsburg. It is easy to find out about this restaurant, but almost impossible to find out about this special dinner. It is not on their website. It is not in their advertising literature. It is not on any sign. How did we find it? By chance when making reservations, the dinner was mentioned when we asked if there were any reservations available for this special holiday weekend. Now, you may ask - what holiday weekend? Go ahead, ask - Ok. In Colonial Williamsburg this is the hottest weekend of the year - not in temperature but in popularity. This is Grand Illumination. A weekend of Christmas activities that come to an explosive crescendo on Sunday night when fireworks fill the sky in three areas of the historic city.

The special dinner is served on Friday nights during the summer months and, apparently now, on Friday night of Grand Illumination Weekend. This is a reserved seating dinner and advanced reservations are required. You cannot just walk up to the door and expect to get in. Let me first explain that this restaurant is part of the museum. It is a rebuilt 18th Century building on its original foundation. It is authentically decorated as it was when it operated as a tavern in 1760 - a tavern then was a like a hotel today. You could eat, drink, and sleep there. Today, at Shields Tavern you can eat and drink. When the special dinner is not being served this is a counter service sandwich restaurant during the day and an alcohol lounge in the evening. At one time not so long ago it was a full service restaurant all of the time. Now the only full meals served here are this special dinner.

The dinner costs $29.00 per adult and $13.00 per child. It includes a beverage of coffee, tea, ice tea, or lemonade. This is an all you care to eat dining experience. The food is served to you at your table and every platter is refillable at your request.

The meal starts with salad. This was a mixed greens and tomatoes salad served in a large serving bowl and covered in a special malt vinegar dressing. The dressing was wonderful - sweet and salty at the same time. Unfortunately, it was so good that I had two bowls of salad. Why unfortunately - well, without realizing it at the moment, the salad filled me up. At our table for two, we had enough salad for four plus. With the salad, you are brought of a basket of rolls. There is home churned butter on the table when you sit down. The ever present server comes by when you look like you have had your fill of salad and politely asks if you are ready for the main servings.

You are now brought a ten inch cast iron frying pan filled with slices of roast turkey covered in a thick, rich turkey gravy, real mashed potatoes, and a savory bread stuffing. You are also brought a metal platter full of sliced Virginia ham, string beans, and stewed peaches, pears, and prunes. You are ALSO brought a kettle of stew - tonight it was braised beef in a wine sauce with vegetables. You serve yourself, or each other, from the platters on the dish that the table was set with. There is also a bowl for your salad.

All of the food is excellent. The Virginia ham is not what you might expect in Virginia. It is not the Virginia salt ham, but a mildly flavored sliced ham. The turkey slices are thick and fresh. The gravy was on the salty side, but very good. I enjoyed the stew. My picky wife does not like anything that has wine on it, so she tried a bit, but left the rest for me. I asked for a second kettle to be brought. As the platters are emptied you ask for more of whatever you would like or more of everything. The server is there so you do not have to wait so long to ask for more that you do not want it anymore (as happens at some other restaurants where you must rely upon the server to get you more). There was so much - especially after the second kettle of stew and the second fry pan of turkey, potatoes, and stuffing - that I broke the rule and ate more than I really should have. It was good - and perhaps it was the two bowls of salad, but I was more than full. I was even a bit uncomfortable - which is really not a good way to be - especially since dessert was still to come.

When you have decided that you have eaten all that you care to eat you are asked which dessert you would like. I do believe you could get both of the two choices if you really want them. The desserts are pumpkin bread pudding covered in a sweet custard and a fruit cobbler which tonight was apple with blueberries, and this, too, is covered with the same sweet custard sauce. The pumpkin bread pudding is more of a pudding than bread. It was not too sweet and very good. The cobbler was a biscuit on top of lightly cooked fruit. I tried the pumpkin and my wife tried the cobbler. I could only finish half of the large portion, as I was full before dessert arrived. (But you will note that I did manage to get down half.)

While we were dining there was a server in the corner of the room playing 18th Century tunes on a recorder. During dinner there are two visitors. One is a strolling musician who will entertain the room with a few songs. Tonight in our dining room it was a gentleman with a fiddle. Stamp your feet! Sing along! Or just enjoy the music. No matter what it is polite to stop dinner conversation and eating while the musician plays. You also will be visited by Mr. James Shields, the 18th Century proprietor of the tavern. This costumed, first=person interpreter talks to each table and the room. He will make small talk, ask where you are from, and talk in general about whatever comes to mind. This character interpreter is one of Colonial Williamsburg's longest working interpreters. He was part of the original pilot program of first person interpretation many years ago. He remains an excellent interpreter and a very amiable fellow - especially with children. It is always a delight when he enters the room.

So for $29.00 plus tax and tip you get an excellent all you care to eat SIT DOWN dinner and entertainment. No so bad for a vacation evening or special occasion.

Like Glockamora, the special meal fades into the mist and is gone until it appears again. (If you do not know the reference, look up the play (or movie), "Brigadoon") If you plan to be in this area call the Colonial Williamsburg reservation line - you can find it from 800-HISTORY - and ask if the Shields Special all you can eat dinner is being served, If it is make a reservation and enjoy!

The Worst Old Country Buffet

The worst Old Country Buffet restaurant has to be the one in Levittown, New York.

We have been visiting this restaurant since it opened a number of years ago. It has had its ups and downs - mostly downs. The problems all seem to come down to management - and not just the on the spot supervisors (who have their problems) but the general manager of the restaurant. Since they have opened there have been several general managers. Some have been better than others, but none seem to get the idea of anticipating the number of guests that they are likely to have on any one particular day - especially days on or before holidays. These are days and nights that I (if I were the restaurant manager) would expect a larger than usual crowd and make the necessary arrangements to have enough of the day's menu on hand. The managers here never anticipate the crowd.

We have frequently gone to the restaurant on Sunday nights. There is always a crowd and the crowd stretches into the later part of the evening. People are still coming in at 8 and 8:30. They close at 9. By 7 to 7:30 pm most items are gone, especially the carvings, which are the main feature of the Sunday menu. Many of the trays are empty and they are either not refilled or they are refilled with a non-comparable item. For example, pork chops are gone and they are replaced with a vegetable.

Now, here is an interesting twist. A few weeks ago, on a Sunday night, trays remained empty through the entire time that we were dining. Carvings were gone as well. By 8:30 no one new had come into the restaurant. At 8:45 pm the employees began to set up tables for themselves to prepare to eat. Suddenly, as most of the guests were leaving, trays started to come out and be restocked. Carvings made their first appearance in over an hour. Now, who was going to be eating all this - you guessed it - the employees. They all ran up to the buffet tables and began filling plates of all of the menu items that had not been out for hours. We may be inclined to blame these employees, but you really need to blame their supervisor. Why wasn't the manager on duty that night actively making sure that all trays and carvings were available for the guests all night? It was not because they were out of them - as they all were brought out as the guests were leaving. This is not a one time happening. We have observed it again since that night. If it has happened twice - it happens a lot.

Often there will be no one at the carving station to carve. Guest will line up waiting for an employee to come over and carve - no one comes. The line disappears as no one wants to wait when nothing is going to happen.

There are nights when no one picks up dirty dishes from the tables until the guests are leaving Stacks of dishes pile up and the server is cleaning empty tables. (I must say that there are two very good servers working here, a man and a woman, who both make sure that every dish is picked up as soon as they can get to it - but this is just two, of many.)

The restaurant floors are also not kept clean throughout the day and night. Anything that falls pretty much remains there in the dining area until the end of the night. No one ever seems to clean under that tables until closing. I once was there with my four year old neice who told me that the restaurant was dirty. Well, if a four year old can make this determination, how come the restaurant manager is unaware (or does not care).

It is not just late night that problems occur. We have been in at early dinner hour and we have been in for lunch. It is never much better.

So why do we return? The next nearest buffet restaurant (other than Chinese buffet) is more than twenty five miles away. So if we want to eat buffet there is no alternative.

So what does one do? We have made complaints to the central office via their website. Know what? You get no response - ever! We have gone to the manager on duty - you sometimes get an apology and an attempt to fix the problem - but there get to be oh, so many problems.

So I get to complain to you all! I am sure there are stories about other buffets that you can relate - post a comment and tell us. I know from previous comments that there are some regular or semi-regular readers who have been to this particular restaurant - some often. If they have a comment or would like to disagree, post a comment. The best thing would be if someone from this Old Country Buffet or better yet, the central office would read this and post a response. Let's see.

East Buffet - Huntington, NY

When you do an Internet search for Chinese buffets on Long Island only one name comes up - East Buffet. It is known to be one of the best Chinese buffet restaurants in New York and perhaps it might be considered to be "the best" any where. East is located on Route 110 in Huntington, NY.

I have been to East a number of times over a number of years. I have not been there in over one year - until this Wednesday night. We have not gone because the price has gone beyond what a usual night out should be for us. A week ago the newspaper ran an ad for the restaurant and there at the bottom of the page was a coupon for ten percent off the bill for up to twenty persons at lunch or dinner from Monday to Friday. We decided to go to East mid-week - figuring that the price would be somewhere around $15 to $18 less the coupon.

East is a very good restaurant. The food is very good. The variety is extensive. The price is very, very expensive. What you get is well worth what you are paying, but it is expensive. The weekday dinner price is $21.99. Children are $10.99. Beverages are extra. A lobster brought to your table is an additional $4.99. Lunch prices are about half at $11.99 each with children at $6.99. The weekend prices were not posted on the wipeboard in the lobby, but from past experience I could safely say that they are about $6.00 or higher more per person.

What you get is a very interesting mix of authentic Chinese dishes with a mix of Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, American and Italian. The center of one of the dining rooms and the entire rear of the restaurant are buffet servers and grills. There are two double-sided, half, buffet tables in the dining area and one long double-sided buffet server in the rear. Along the entire rear wall are grills, carving stations, and a sushi bar. Along the wall next to the half buffets is a dessert buffet.

On one of the two half buffets are fruit and salad - the salad being just lettuce, toppings, and dressings - along with a variety of cold Oriental dishes, many very exotic and some recognizable such as cold noodles with sesame sauce. There is also cold peel and eat shrimp here. The fresh fruit included papaya, kiwi, a variety of melons, etc. The website says that there are 11 types of jello - and there are. The other half buffet has hot dishes including fettucini alfredo, chicken marsala, baked ziti, eggplant Parmesan (which was oddly made with chunks of eggplant rather than the usual stacked slices), spare ribs, braised short ribs, two kinds of fried rice, boneless ribs, and a variety of unusual Chinese meat and appetizer dishes. There was a crispy shrimp roll that was a whole shrimp wrapped in a thin wrapper and fried.

The long buffet server in the back has four types of soups - wonton, hot and sour, miso, and seafood soup. There were several types of dumplings, all fully stuffed and each set out in steamers. There was a steamed shrimp dumpling that was bulging with several full size shrimp in each one. The shrimp were very flavorful. There are crab legs - whole, large clusters. The rest of the table is filled with Chinese dishes - some familiar, many unusual. In between the hot trays set into the table, they set out serving platters of more entrees. There were crabs in ginger sauce, scallops in black pepper sauce, very jumbo shrimp made into salt and pepper shrimp, salmon, shrimp and lobster sauce (made like a real Chinese restaurant makes it- full of pork, egg, and only large shrimp (not mixed with fake crab), Chinese Fillet Mignon, and other excellent dishes.

Along the back wall they are carving real Prime Rib, Peking Duck - carved off the duck in front of you and placed into the pancake, and leg of lamb. The grills are cooking appetizers from all over the Orient. These come off the grill and into hot pans set along the top of the counter. They are constantly refilled. Here were pan fried pork dumplings and scallion dumplings. There is Thai sate chicken and beef served on skewers with a sate peanut sauce on the side. There is Korean short ribs, grilled pork loin, a rolled beef grilled with chopped greens. There is tempura. There are scallion pancakes. There was an unusual French Seafood Roll that was a thin wrapper filled with fish and pork - it had the taste of the seasonings of Italian pork sausage. There are several seafood dishes and appetizers coming off the grill. The sushi bar is more extensive than the usual buffet offering. It is continually made at the counter and there are a mix of raw fish and vegetable offerings. There are a lot of different raw salmon sushi offered. One really nice thing is that there is low sodium soy sauce out for the sushi.

There are so many dishes on the various buffet tables that it is impossible to list them all (as I am able to do at other buffets). They do change night to night - and during the night. The web site claims 250 dishes - and I would doubt that, as it seems like more.

Dessert will not disappoint. There is a lot more besides the fruit and 11 jellos already mentioned. There is a variety of little cakes, cookies, and pastries - a step above the usual Little Debbie type cakes. There are a number of Oriental desserts - puddings and custards. There are fried bananas. There is even a Chinese dessert sweet soup. Of course, there is a soft serve machine with creamy ice cream.

There is a mix of Asian and American in the customer-base of this restaurant. On some nights the dining rooms are filled with Asian-Americans. They know what many of the exotic dishes are and that is what you see them eating. One night here I ran into the owner of our local take out restaurant dining here with his wife. (East is about a 15 mile drive from our home.) Asian people take the private room here for parties. An excellent indication that the food here is authentic and good.

Service is as good as the food. Dishes were taken up from the table as soon as they were empty. We did not order sodas (to keep the price more affordable, even with the ten percent off coupon), but the water glasses were refilled when they were half empty. There are extra napkins on the table and knives with every place setting. Often at Chinese buffets as soon as you take dessert, the bill is plopped down on your table. Here you ask for it when you are ready. The servers were all friendly.

When the bill comes it comes with a 12 and one half percent tip automatically added on. This is fair for the quality of service. But when you get the bill, with the tax and tip included dinner for two is running about $54.00. That is a lot of money for a weeknight. We usually reserve this restaurant for a special occasion - and never on the weekend.

The restaurant closes every night around 9:00 pm and I mean they close - not just stop seating. It is always best to get here no later than 7:00 pm and even that can be too late if there is a crowd. You can wait here on a Saturday night over an hour to get in. There have been waits on other nights as well. The wait and the closing time can be a problem.

The restaurant is located at 179 Walt Whitman Road (yes, that Walt Whitman - his home was just around the corner from the restaurant) in Huntington Station, New York. The phone number is 631-385-0800. There is a web site and it is listed at the side of our page.

If you can afford it and you want a Chinese food extravaganza try East. There are many who say so - the Internet has many reviews about this restaurant. And that is unusual for any buffet.

Heelies at the Buffet

Have you seen kids rolling around on the heels of their shoes? These are called "heelies" and they have found their way to the feet of children at buffet restaurants. The children scooting around on these things are enough of a hazard, but how about these kids rolling around the buffet servers?!?

We have experienced this several times since this past summer. One night we had a child wheeling his way through the buffet line trying to balance and hold his plate at the same time. Of course, in the process he had no awareness that there were people walking around him trying to carry their plates.

We have spoken before about children at buffets and their treating the restaurant as one large playgound. With the addition of these shoe roller skates,they have become a hazard. So where are the parents? Right there along side or at their table with no concern that the kid is cruising along in a crowded restaurant.

So... a new rule. One that should never have had to been stated. Common sense apparently means nothing. So here goes...

No heelies in buffet restaurants. Parents do not permit your child to wear heelies at the buffet.

How ridiculous!

>Spot any heelies at a buffet? Let us know.

Ming Gourmet Buffet - Lancaster, PA

The Ming Gourmet Buffet is located in Lancaster, PA in a strip mall next to a K-Mart on the Fruitville Pike. The restaurant has recently opened. It takes up the space of three storefronts. Inside the restaurant is nicely decorated and is typical of the larger Chinese buffets. There are three large dining rooms with booths and tables. One of the dining rooms can be used as a private party room - though it is glass-walled and in full view of the rest of the dining rooms. The buffet tables are located in the center of the dining rooms and there are three large buffet servers.

Price is moderate - not cheap but not excessive for what is offered. Dinner on the weekends from Friday through Sunday is $12.15. The weekday dinner price is $10.35. Lunch is $6.25 every day except Sunday. Sunday is dinner prices all day. Children's prices are weekend dinner - $6.05, weekday dinner - $5.25, and lunch - $3.85. Soft drinks are $1.29 and are refillable.

There is one buffet table with salads, desserts, and sushi. The other two tables have appetizers and entrees. There was a lot of seafood offered on the Sunday night that I went. There were large cluster crab legs. There were crabs in ginger sauce. There is peel and eat cold shrimp and they were a nice size. These shrimp were on the mushy side and that means they were over cooked. The sushi was salmon, shrimp, and crab. There was also a variety of vegetable sushi rolls. It was replenished throughout the night. Also in the seafood offerings were flounder steamed in ginger (not refilled while we were dining), frogs legs, crayfish, and several shrimp dishes. A number of the dishes had octopus and squid. This is not my thing so I passed these by.

There were three soups - wonton, egg drop, and hot and sour. The usual appetizers were there but there were no egg rolls (but there were spring rolls). There were few meat dishes. There was beef and mushrooms, chicken and broccoli, and an interesting pork meatball. Carved ham was on the end of one of the buffet tables.

Dessert was sparse. There were a few types of "Little Debbie"-type cakes. There was jello and pudding as well as fruit. There is a soft serve machine and the ice cream was very good and creamy - not icy.

The food was tasty. I would have preferred more meat offerings and less seafood, but if you enjoy seafood this was an excellent buffet. If you enjoy crablegs they were large and properly cooked. The broke open easily and the crab came right out of the shell. (One lesson that I have learned about crab legs over the years is not to take too many at once. As they cool down they get harder to take from the shell and the meat tends to stick to the inside. When they are hot they break easy and come out without a struggle.) For the money you got a lot of seafood. Many of the seafood entrees were in some form of butter sauce.

Service was excellent and the buffet tables were well tended. Serving trays were refilled regularly (except for the flounder). Dishes were cleaned away quickly and the server made sure that the drinks were refilled.

Ming Gourmet Buffet is a good restaurant. I would recommend the neighboring Star Buffet (see review) before this one but that may just be my preference for the variety there (less seafood and more meat).

There is no website. The address is 1858 Fruitville Pike, Lancaster, PA. The phone number is (717) 560-0998. They are open until 10pm on Sundays to Thursday and until 11 pm on Friday and Saturday. They open at 11 am every day except Sunday when they open at 11:30 am. There are 10% off coupons in local newspapers and there are little advertising cards found in hotel lobbies that offer the same discount. If you are looking for all the seafood that you can eat and are in this area, try it.

CiCi's Pizza

There was an ad on cable television for this chain of restaurants. I quickly hit the Internet to find out where they were and discovered that this is a chain of over 600 restaurants primarily in the Southeastern United States. Looking on their locator map they are as far north in the east as Pennsylvania, and recently a restaurant opened in Chicago. Sadly, there is none near me, though there are several in areas that I travel through. I have not reviewed a restaurant that I have not eaten at, but I am going to tell you about what I have learned about this chain - and perhaps there is someone out there who has eaten at CiCi's Pizza who can post a comment and tell us all how it is.

Cici's Pizza is a pizza and pasta buffet. It is one of the cheapest buffet meals that I am aware of. The entire meal including pizza, pasta, salad, dessert, and soda is just $4.49. This seems to be the only price - lunch or dinner. There is no mention of a children's price. This is all you care to eat and there is a lot of variety.

They claim to have 16 different types of pizzas and "tons" of toppings. I am not sure what this means, but the implication is that you can add toppings to the pizzas that are on the buffet. The pizza's on the buffet are 12 inch pies cut into ten slices - it is all you want so the size does not really matter. There is pasta with two types of sauce - either marinara or alfredo. The claim is that the salad bar is "expansive". Desserts include chocolate and apple desserts and cinnamon rolls.

There are also take out pizzas which are larger, 15 inch pies. There is also dessert to go.

A pizza buffet is an interesting concept. Pizza Hut does a lunch buffet. It is not this cheap. The chain started in Texas in 1985, so the restaurant is long established. There are peel and win contests that make the price even cheaper and the website has a game page on which you play the games to win coupons and free meals. I would love to see one of these restaurants. If anyone has been to one please tell us about it!

There is a website which is posted at the side of the page. The website will tell you where the nearest restaurant is to you.

China Buffet Restaurant - East Meadow, NY

The China Buffet Restaurant is located on Merrick Avenue in East Meadow, New York. Years ago this was a neighborhood regular Chinese restaurant. A number of years ago they became a buffet that includes a Mongolian grill.

This restaurant is just a mile from my home. About two years back we had gone to this restaurant regularly, but then stopped. At the time the dinner was $8.99. The reason that we stopped was that it never seemed to be kept as clean as it should be. One of their problems is a carpeted dining room floor and anything that falls or spills is very obvious. Tonight, we were looking for some place different and this restaurant was brought up. My wife said that in two years things could be very different. So we decided to give it another chance.

There is a primary difference in two years - the price has gone up two dollars. The dinner price is now $10.99. The lunch price is $5.99. The prices are the same seven days a week. Children under two eat free and under seven are half price. Soda, RC products, is $1.20 with free refills. The price is low compared to other local Chinese buffet restaurants, but the variety offered is limited.

The restaurant is one large room. The seating area of booths and tables is divided down the middle by one long buffet server and the Mongolian grill behind it.

I must say that many of the things that diners look for in a Chinese buffet are here for the price. There are crab legs - single legs, not clusters. There is sushi - California Rolls and salmon on rice. There is the Mongolian grill. At the grill there is chicken, beef, shrimp, and pork. The meat should be frozen and kept that way - here it was not. There is an assortment of vegetables, but the usual chopped cabbage that should be the filler vegetable was missing. There were noodles. There were two sauces - both unlabeled and both looked the same (soy sauce?). There was hot pepper and garlic to spoon on top. In addition there was crab in ginger sauce, fried dumplings, cocktail shrimp, egg foo young, several chicken dishes, sweet and sour pork that was made up with vegetables (not the usual fried chicken pieces with red sauce to pour on top) shrimp with lobster sauce, and the usual beef and peppers and chicken with broccoli. The chicken with broccoli was made with a nice brown sauce and was better than most. There are also the usual fried appetizers. There are three soups - wonton (with the wontons on the side to add in), egg drop, and hot and sour.

Most other Chinese buffets offer more variety in the dishes served. The Mongolian grill can make up for that here, as you can make yourself almost any combination.

There are NO knives to be found in this restaurant. Several of the dishes need to be cut - unless you have a very large mouth or extremely strong teeth. This was a problem two years ago and it is still a problem now.

The desert selection is very limited. There is pudding, soft serve ice cream, jello, orange sections, a non-labeled pie that could have been like a cheese cake pie, and bananas in a red sauce. There were none of the little cakes usually found at these restaurants.

If the price were still $8.99 I might be inclined to go back sooner than later, but for a few dollars more there are better Chinese buffets to be found. The cleanliness issue is still marginal. The same carpet holds the dirt on the floor and unless you are there when they open for the day you are not going to see a clean floor; the carpet is not cleaned until they close. The dishes seemed clean,and the table seemed clean. The food was refilled regularly and there was someone maintaining what was out on the server - stirring, etc.

There is no website. In summary I will say that this is a coin toss - not great, but not bad.

Steakhouse Special at Old Country Buffet

Tonight we decided to try the new "Steakhouse" special at Old Country Buffet. The special menu is served from Thursday through Saturday nights. As many of OCB's special menus are, this one is disappointing.

The menu introduces several new items to the buffet. There are two types of "Steakhouse" steaks - garlic mushroom and peppercorn. There is rotissarie-"style" chicken. There is peel and eat shrimp. There is butterfly shrimp, and there is a "blooming" onion.

In actuality the two types of steak are just the same steak that OCB usually serves, fatty and overdone, with two different sauces served on the side. The garlic mushroom sauce is the same mushrooms with garlic that is always served at OCB with their steak. The peppercorn sauce tasted like a mushroom gravy with too much cracked pepper added. It was definitely not the French peppercorn sauce that I have had at restaurants before. Silly me, thinking that Old Country Buffet was actually going to serve steak au poivre.

The rotissarie-style chicken never came near a rotissarie. I guess that is why it is called "rotissarie-style". It was better than the usual OCB baked chicken. It was moister and had a good taste. Had it actually been a rotissarie chicken it would have been even better.

The picture at the door shows a "blooming" onion just like the one at Outback Steakhouse, a whole onion fried and open. The Outback has nothing to worry about. This was no where to be found on the buffet servers. What was there was breaded, fried onion sections and were called "onion chips" on the sign above them. The special sauce shown in the photo was also no where to be found.

The peel and eat shrimp, on first look, had promise. It was located on the salad bar and the shrimp were served in a large dish full of ice. The shrimp were nice sized, cocktail shrimp. Unfortunately, the shrimp mostly sat in the melted ice water and were soaked through with water. They had little taste. There was a serving dish of cocktail sauce next to the dish of shrimp, but it was empty. I asked one of the servers if it could be refilled and I was told that there was no more. This is Friday night - does this mean that tomorrow, at Saturday's dinner, there will be no cocktail sauce. And if there is, where will they get it? And if there is, why was it not put out tonight?

The butterfly shrimp were just small fried shrimp, butterflied and fried. Nothing special.

So overall, don't rush out for the steakhouse special. It is better than Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp - but, if they are going to do this - in obvious competiton with the steakhouse steaks now featured at The Golden Corral, why not do it right - serve steak that has in some similarity (other than that it is beef - I hope) to a steak that one would get in a steakhouse.

The Old Country Buffet that I go to most often - because of proximity - is the OCB in Levittown, NY. There is a continued problem at this location that has only to do with poor planning on the part of the management. They frequently run out of things or have long delays in refilling things. They never anticipate what the crowd might be - especially when the day is or is before a school holiday, when more families will go out to eat. A good manager would plan in advance that more needs to be on hand on those days. There is also inconsistency in the cooking at this location. I would think that things are precooked, heat and serve, but they do not seem to be. Some nights they are much more salty than other nights. Tonight was one of those salty nights.

When we arrived at the restaurant this evening we saw two large buses parked outside. With some regrets that we picked the wrong night to come, we went in to find that a college football team from Georgia was having dinner inside. A group this large must have made advanced arrangements - again, this was not planned into the preparation for the evening's business, and there was a lot empty at the buffet tables. They were a nice group of guys - all large and all hungry. The lines were long around the buffet servers. To top it all off, one of the two ice machines (that never have enough ice and are often quickly emptied) has been out of service for a week. So the line at the only ice machine went on and on. Usually the soda is cold on its own, but tonight it was warm out of the spout, perhaps related to the broken ice unit. When the team left things settled down and some (just some) of the trays got refilled. To go to the only other OCB on Long Island I would have to drive 30 miles. Not with gas prices as they still are. It is not so bad that I won't go there, but this location needs improving. So does the overall chain's special menu offerings.

Ramblings

Well, we are home again. We have been for a few weeks. The posts were written after dining at the restaurants and published one a week. It is time to start writing again.

Since returning we have been back to a few of the local buffets. Tonight we went back to the Good Taste Buffet in Commack, NY. (See July 22, 2006)Sometimes the second time around, things are different - or disappointing. The Good Taste Buffet was just as good this time. The food has a fresh taste - you can taste the shrimp as shrimp - not so in many restaurants, buffets or not. Sadly, this restaurant is not close by to us and we are not often in the area to dine there.

A few times in the past few weeks we have been back to the Old Country Buffet. I am very pleased to announce that Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp is GONE, GONE, GONE. That was one of the worst OCB specials that they have ever offered. The worst part was that it took the place of all of the regular offerings each night - despite the claim that it did not. The new special at OCB is Steak House Steak. This was something that Golden Corral did,and did well. I have not had the OCB special yet, but from the description on the signs and posters, it is not going to be great, why? - because the main center of attraction is OCB's poorly cooked steak. The other two major buffet chains cooked the steak to order on a flame grill. OCB's steak is broiled in an oven and served one way - tough and well done. There are a few things going along with the steak. There will be Outback-style blooming onions and peel and eat shrimp. The shrimp - if it is kept properly chilled - will be a nice feature. The steak is advertised in two styles - with garlic mushrooms or peppercorn. I will not comment until I try it - but..

One Saturday afternoon we needed a substantial lunch, anticipating a not so substantial dinner. We went to the OCB at about 3:00 pm. We were there in the midst of seniors having early dinners and Disabled group homes out for a meal field trip. There were a few odd guests - none of them part of the Disabled. There was one lady in flamboyant Sixties pants and top with hair to match. This was defiantly an aging hippy who was never told that the Sixties have been long gone. This was not someone in a fashion coming back - this was a lady who should not have been wearing this if it was 1968.

One good thing to know about showing up for lunch at OCB at about 3:00 pm. You pay lunch prices and for about 30 minutes the lunch menu is out on the buffet tables, but at 3:30 the buffet begins to change and the dinner features come out as the lunch features are taken away. So for less money you get both menus, lunch and dinner. Not bad. All of the carvings come out, as well as all of the dinner menu items.

One night at OCB we saw the largest man we have ever seen - not so much tall but round. I am not sure how he sat on the chair (but he did) or how he fit into a car. On another night we saw a family with two children - middle school age. The kids were eating ice cream and french fries - together on their plates. And they were dipping. Humm... Mom and Dad just watched without commenting. This is only topped by the lady that I told you about months ago at a Ryan's who had steak and shrimp on her plate topped with vanilla ice cream.

Enough rambling for now. If you have been to the OCB and had the new steakhouse special, let us know in the comments area how it is.

Green Olive Buffet and Grill - Arlington, Virginia

Driving to our hotel late at night in Alexandria, Virginia we drove past a restaurant that we had known to be a seafood buffet in the past. A number of years ago we had called the restaurant to find out the price and was told a ridiculously high price – with the reason that lobster was being served. We laughed at the price and never tried the restaurant. When we saw the sign for the restaurant now it still said seafood buffet but it now had a different name. At the hotel there was a local tourism magazine that had an ad for this restaurant. My wife said to me that the ad says that dinner is $12.99 per adult seven days a week. We also discovered that while the restaurant is a seafood buffet, it is also an oriental buffet.

The name of this restaurant is the Green Olive Buffet and Grill and we had dinner there the next evening. The restaurant is located on US1. The address is 7405 Richmond Highway in Alexandria, Virginia. The prices for dinner are $12.99 per adult (every night) with children’s prices based upon height. Children under 36” are free and under 5’4” are half price. My wife is 5’1” but she had to pay full price. There is a lunch buffet for $6.99 Monday to Friday and $8.99 on Saturday and Sunday. Soft drinks are $1.49 and are refillable.

The restaurant is large with two large dining rooms on each side of a large room of buffet servers. One room is smoking; the other is non-smoking. There are five double sided buffet servers, a one sided buffet server, a counter with five soups, and a large grill and sushi bar. There is great variety in this restaurant and you can easily just eat seafood, just eat meat and potatoes, or just eat oriental – OR mix as you like. You enter and you are seated (paying when you leave). The server takes your soft drink order and you start going up for your meal. Silverware is placed on your table and your server brings extra napkins. Knives are available near the grill. Plates are at the end of each buffet server.

There are five soups. The featured soup on the night we went was lobster bisque. There was also New England clam chowder, wonton soup, egg drop soup, and hot and sour soup. The lobster bisque was a light, creamy soup with chunks of lobster meat (and some chunks that seemed to be sealegs and not lobster – but there was definitely a good amount of lobster in there. The wonton soup had a nice broth with good, meat filled wontons.

There was a salad bar with greens, toppings, and dressings, as well as prepared salads including a cold shrimp in a spiced sauce. On this server there was also raw clams, raw oysters, and peel and eat shrimp that were a good size.

There were a variety of steamed dumplings and also pan fried dumplings. There were all the usual Chinese appetizers – egg rolls, fried wontons, cheese and crab wontons, fries crab claws, etc. There was a sushi bar with a sushi chef standing behind it the whole time that we were there and he was preparing sushi. There were many different types including salmon sashimi, tuna sashimi, several fish that I did not recognize (but I am sure those who know sushi would), and California rolls that were big and full.

There were many types of seafood, both fried and “steamed”. There were steamed blue crabs, steamed, spiced shrimp, salmon, stuffed crab shells, crab cakes that were full of crab meat and very good, steamed flounder, crab and cheese casserole, fried shrimp, fried scallops, mixed seafood, fried clam strips, two types of mussels, seafood and noodles alfredo, fried frog legs, steamed clams, and on the chargrill whole shrimps (complete with heads).

Meats include carved prime rib, Peking duck, a variety of Chinese meat dishes including chicken and mushrooms, chicken and broccoli, beef and peppers, roast chicken, and other changing meats. On the chargrill they will grill steak to your order, as well as teriyaki beef sticks. There were barbecue spareribs that were a combination of Chinese spareribs and American bbq spareribs. They had a thick sauce on them that tasted more oriental than barbecue sauce.

There are many vegetables and side dishes, both oriental and American. There were mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, sautéed string beans, and corn on the cob. There was rice, fried rice, and lo mein.

For dessert there was banana pudding, chocolate pudding, jello, canned fruit, fresh fruit, and the usual assortment of “Little Debbie”-like cakes. Next to the soup counter is a freezer chest with four flavors of ice cream cups. The ice cream is Hershey’s ice cream and was very good. (Did you know that Hershey’s ice cream has nothing to do with the Hershey’s chocolate company?)

The restaurant was clean and well maintained. The food was good and there were a significant number of Asian diners – which is one of my clues that an Asian restaurant is good. Service was good and dishes were cleared quickly. There was one minor thing regarding the service that was certainly just a mistake, but could have caused a serious problem. We were drinking Diet Coke (coke products are served here) and when the server came with a pitcher to refill the glasses, she said, “Diet Coke” and poured. When I drank the soda, I am certain that it was real Coke – as a Diabetic this is a problem. Now my wife insists that it was Diet Coke – but it had that sugar jolt that only a Diabetic who does not get real Coke often can taste. I could have gotten the server over right away to change the soda to change it. That aside, the service was great. They even kept coming over to make sure that all was well.

There are a few buffet choices in the Arlington area. This one is definitely worth a visit. If you are just looking for seafood this one has more than most seafood buffets. If you want Chinese, Sushi, or American – this one has it all. The inside décor is very nice – nicer than you might expect from the road house look of the outside. There is also a liquor bar in the buffet room with seats at the bar and large screen TVs with sports. I recommend the Green Olive Buffet and Grill. The phone number is 703-765-5899. There is a website which is listed at the side of the page.

Try this one!

Grand Shanghai Restaurant – Williamsburg, Virginia

The Grand Shanghai Restaurant is a new Chinese buffet in Williamsburg, Virginia. The restaurant is in the location of the former Peking II buffet. That restaurant closed to become the larger Peking Buffet that I reviewed one year ago. The site remained vacant for a while and now the Grand Shanghai has opened. Many of the dishes used here still say Peking on them as used at the other restaurant.

This restaurant has a lot of competition in the Peking Restaurant that is just down the road. Reading my review of the Peking you will know that I consider that restaurant the best Chinese buffet that I have been to. We went into this new restaurant with a comparison in the back of our minds which is really not fair to the Grand Shanghai – yet, with the proximity of this competition comparisons cannot be overlooked. If you have a choice of the two, you need to know which one to choose.

The price of this restaurant is excellent at $8.99 per adult dinner. Soft drinks were $1.20 and there are free refills. There were no prices posted or in any literature so I cannot tell you what the children’s price is or what the lunch buffet costs. This restaurant is smaller than Peking. It has two dining areas - one with all booths at the side of the restaurant and one with a mix of both tables and booths. The décor is expectedly oriental and very nice. It is evident right at the door that this is a family run restaurant as even a young child was working seating guests and also working at the cash register – for an elementary age young lady she did an excellent job. Father and mother were working as was older sister (it seemed).

There are three short double-sided buffet servers at the side of a Mongolian grill (which is actually a small fry grill and not the large round griddle that is usually found). At each side of this grill was a mix of salad and toppings and Mongolian BBQ items on one side and grill items on the other side along with pan fried dumplings and dim sum. There was also a tray of “sushi” which is featured in the advertising but was nothing more than avocado rolls and cold shrimp on top of rice. This is really not sushi = there was no raw fish and no variety.

There were the three usual soups – wonton, egg drop, and hot and sour. The wonton soup had a light, good broth and the wontons were full, well cooked and had a light, but solidly good skin. There were two types of dumplings offered- pan fried and steamed. Both were good and full. There also was dim sum with a nice flavor.

We went into this restaurant on a Tuesday night at about 6:30 pm which is definitely dinner time. The restaurant was not crowded, but filled more as we sat there dining. When we went up to the servers there were several trays that were empty. No one seemed to be paying attention and they remained empty for a while. A short time later the owners and the little girl went around and took note of what was empty. Things started to be refilled in a short time after that. So my first impression of “hmm, who is watching these tables?” was proved wrong by mid-meal.

The food was all good. There were a number of entrees and vegetable dishes. Some of the offerings were Beef and Zucchini, grilled shrimp on a skewer, fried spicy shrimp, popcorn shrimp, General Tso’s chicken, Chicken and Broccoli, Hong Kong Beef, mussels, a wide variety of chicken dishes,and duck. All of the usual were there including peel and eat shrimp, fried wontons, egg rolls, fried rice (with both shrimp and pork), lo mein, spare ribs (with overly sweet sauce cooked on), chicken on a stick (though this was much lighter than the usual),etc.

To all of this there was also the Mongolian barbecue. The offerings for this are limited. There are three meats – chicken, pork, and slices of beef ribs. The vegetables were next to and mixed into the salad bar. There was some confusion here as to what went with what – and for the most part did not matter. My wife and I both took what we saw as zucchini and it turned out to be cucumbers. It did not go well on the grill – well, it was ok, but it was not zucchini. All of the hot entrees were well labeled. The Mongolian BBQ items were not labeled except for the several sauce choices. These sauces were a bit unusal with red wine, a lo mein sauce, and then the usual hot sauce, Mongolian sauce, and garlic. I tried a mix of the wine and the lo mein sauce and it was good. There is a bell to ring to get the cook to come out and put your choices on the grill. He was there when we went up and did a good job including cleaning the grill (scraping it down) between each dish that he cooked.

There is a limited selection of desserts. There were fried dough balls, little éclairs, and sugar flaky dough pretzel shaped cookies. There was also fresh and canned fruit, pudding, and jello. At the side of the grill area there was a freezer case with scoop yourself hard ice cream.

By now you have heard me refer to “cookie cutter” Chinese buffets where one is almost a total duplicate of another. This was only a partial cookie cutter restaurant. Some dishes were the same as at other buffets, but many were different and had a distinct flavor at this restaurant.

The service was excellent. Dishes were removed promptly by one of two young ladies working the dining room. Soda was refilled promptly – once while we were up at the buffet table. We were continually asked if we would like more. The check was put on the table mid-meal but I do not think thatthere was anything intended by it and the young lady kept coming back and asking if we wanted more soda as we continued to go to the servers and return to the table to eat.

There is great value here. If we must go back to the comparison, then I must say that the choices here are much more limited than at the Peking Restaurant. Then again, the price here is a about two dollars less per adult and for what you are paying you are not going to leave hungry or unhappy. If I could only go to one, I would still pick Peking first, but this is a nice alternative. I recommend it.

The restaurant is located at 5601-12 Richmond Road in the Ewell Station Shopping Center (strip mall) in Williamsburg, Virginia. The shopping center is adjacent to the Prime Outlets. There is no website. The phone number is (757) 565-1212. There are ads in the local tourist magazines but no discount coupons.

Try it!